Jype

Best scenario would probably be Zenit, Olympiacos, Ferencvaros/Midtjylland. That looks more like a Europa League group than a CL one. Nightmare would be Bayern, Inter, Marseille.

Surely the club will only allow Jorginho to leave if a new signing (Rice) comes through. There may be negotiations with some clubs but I highly doubt the club would give a final green light for him to go if Rice isn't signed first. At the moment I don't think either will happen. RLC could still be loaned without another signing. That would leave Havertz, Mount, Kovacic, Kante, Jorginho and Gilmour competing for three places. Defensively that's not good enough and the midfield would still have problems so I'm all for Jorginho leaving and Rice joining but RLC situation shouldn't affect that at all.

Villa were never going to accept a mandatory buy clause with the threat of relegation. And even if they were, what should the price have been? 10M, 15M, 20M? If he has a good season on loan he could easily go for +25M be it to Villa or somewhere else.

He has a contract till 2023, what's the rush? Play a good season at Villa and then sell next year for a good enough fee. Now Villa pay his wages and I would also assume some loan fee, so his costs for this season will be small or zero. Only real risk is if he gets a bad injury (like Zappacosta at Roma) and becomes impossible to sell but I'm guessing the club have done some risk assessment and concluded he might fetch better value next year than just desperately sell for any price now. It's easy to shout from the forums that the club should sell players but if nobody is willing to pay fair price now, the only options are to loan or keep as a backup.

It's a loan, right? Not a bad idea for a 20yo keeper to get experience out on loan, he was never going to become first choice at PSG (or at Chelsea) right away. And even on a loan there probably aren't many top division clubs who are willing to take a gamble on someone with that little experience so a Segunda club sounds about right for his level.

Match fitness probably, but especially with Pulisic looking somewhat injury prone they won't want to take any unnecessary risks with him. I think last season a lot of the injuries were down to players being rushed back too quickly so maybe this time they're playing it safer. With the international break so close now, maybe it's better to wait till after the break for Pulisic/Ziyech.

Just ok-ish? If that's not a great overall performance, why don't you tell us what he needs to do for you to admit he's done well? In WhoScored metrics, Mount scored an 8.52 rating yesterday. Second highest in the Chelsea team was CHO at 7.56 and from those who played the full 90 mins Havertz came closest at 7.37. That's not only because Mount scored a goal, he played well otherwise too. It helped him to move more centrally after CHO came on and the formation changed but even in the first half Mount created that one great chance for Werner which he then shot into the crossbar. Either way, CHO did really well too and his performance yesterday certainly didn't hurt his chances of playing more. He should start on Tuesday against Spurs to build up his match sharpness and form.

Also previously reported to be after Emerson. And interested in a loan deal for RLC. It's fantasy land stuff but just offer them everything. Emerson, Rüdiger on permanent deals + RLC on loan + a bit of money for Rice.

There was a good amount of irony in Bruno Fernandes signalling with his hands that he thought Lamptey had dived for the penalty.

He was in Chelsea academy on a scholarship and moved to Bayern who could already offer him a professional contract at 16 due to different rules in Germany. In England however Chelsea could only have offered him a pro deal when he turned 17 so there was nothing the club could have done to prevent him from going when he had made up his mind. Musiala's agent is Hudson-Odoi's brother who already had a prior relationship with Bayern from the time he tried to get a move for CHO earlier in 2019 so he offered the player to Bayern who were happy to take him. Musiala is a dual-citizen of UK / Germany so a move to the biggest club in his other home country probably appealed to him. Good move for the boy.

Spurs have a Europa League play-off next Thursday as well, only two days after the cup match. Of course that one's a home game against Maccabi Haifa which they should still win comfortably even with a rotated team but I'd say the EL must still takes priority over Carabao Cup due to the money involved. They're banking on the revenue from EL, even if it's not CL money level, and can't afford to lose it. So far Tottenham have played close to full strength team in the EL qualifiers. They can't play their best team on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and again next Sunday. That's four games within 8 days and they've already been playing twice a week since the season started. If I was Jose, I would pretty much give up on the cup.

All about protecting the value. An established international footballer like Rüdiger would still command a good fee in non-COVID circumstances (guessing around 25-30M) so with two years left on his current deal it makes no sense to loan him out without a one-year extension. Otherwise his value will plummet next summer with only one year remaining in his current deal and the loaning club will surely not pay fair value anymore, even though they've already got the player since he still had 2 years left. Obviously the priority would be a straight sale but if there are no clubs with that kind of money right now, a loan is the only option.Same with Batshuayi a while back and Bakayoko now.

Who's gonna buy him though? Italian clubs sure can't seem to afford him. Unless Rice joins I wouldn't sell him yet, especially with Gilmour still out for a long time. I'd keep Jorgi for another season and check back next year. Obviously if Rice is signed the situation will change, and Jorginho becomes somewhat expendable.

Same guy broke Mendy news way before any journalist. I think he's reliable.

They didn't refuse to sell, he was never on the club's radar. Mendy was always first choice and been scouted by Lollichon since December 2018. Don't think Martinez to Chelsea was even a rumor at any point and let me tell you, there were a lot of rumors regarding the GK signing this summer. It was only some individual fan hopes, just like Zakaria etc.

He will if he were to flop. So basically a lose-lose situation for Chelsea to loan him out to a club like Bayern. Either he'll become a huge success and they buy him (they'd definitely not accept a loan without option) or he'll play even less than he would at Chelsea and they just send him back. In the meanwhile Chelsea would be lacking in winger depth which likely affects team performances over the season.

You're not missing much, just an ex-scouser saying Mendy is shit and because he's not a 'household name' the Chelsea fans will be screaming for Kepa to return in goal whenever he makes a mistake. IIRC the same guy said Liverpool didn't sign Werner because he's not good enough for them.

Happy with the signing. Only two days before the WBA match, is he ready to start? GK is probably the 'easiest' position to slot straight in without much team training so I would guess he'll play.

I don't think at this point anyone's under any illusion that all flaws in Ruben's game will magically disappear and he'll turn into an absolute world beater but that doesn't mean he can't still be a very useful player if he can overcome his current problems. For all his deficiencies, he offers some qualities no one else in the team has and for me that's enough to earn himself a place in the squad but probably not in his current state. He had a good year out on loan at Palace and under Sarri it wasn't just three months of good performances, I'd say he impressed pretty much every time he played but Sarri only realised that halfway through the season when he began using RLC more regularly. The Ruben from August 2017 - May 2019 was definitely good enough to be a Chelsea player, he only needed a platform to really show what he can do. Even then he might not have been a world class player and with the likes of Havertz having joined he probably wouldn't start in this current Chelsea team even at his best but I won't accept anyone telling me he wasn't a lot better than the likes of Ross Barkley. If he can go on loan to see if he can get back to that level and show some consistency, I'd happily let him go and then see later whether he should come back or not.

Thing is though, RLC at his best is/was a much better player than Barkley has ever shown to be. But he needs game time and a continued period without injuries to have any chance of making it. He won't do that at Chelsea atm but if he was loaned out there's a chance he might get there elsewhere. Under no circumstance would I sell him on a permanent deal now and I don't think there'd be anyone willing to pay good money for him right now anyway due to his achilles problem. He's under contract till 2024 and has no transfer fee amortisation value hanging over his head so a loan should be relatively straightforward to sort out because the loaning club would only need to pay his wages, so for a club like Aston Villa it'd be a low-risk high-reward deal. If he can't get regain his pre-injury level out on loan, a more permanent solution can be found in another year or two but if he were to get back to his best level he would most certainly still be an asset to the club and could take a place in the squad again next year when some changes in midfield are bound to happen (some question marks over Jorginho, Kante, Barkley). Of course there's a concrete chance he would never return again with younger prospects like Gallagher, Gilmour trying their best to break through but still a loan deal would be 1000x better than selling now. I don't think Lampard has given up on him either.

Would be a decent move for him I think. I haven't given up on him at all, but in this current moment I can't see him getting enough games to fully overcome his problems if he stays this season. A year out on loan at a PL side could do him a lot of good and depending on how he gets on, there might still be a place for him to return next year. Barkley has been playing decently in the first few games this season and is clearly ahead of RLC in Lampard's books at the moment. Ruben was mysteriously missing from the lineup altogether tonight despite the League Cup being one of the best opportunities for him to gain match sharpness so I think there might be some truth to this rumor. Zouma got his act together out on loan after his bad injury and made a return so I don't see any reason why RLC couldn't as well.

One thing to consider with Rudiger/Christensen is also finances. AC being an academy graduate with no transfer fee amortisation is a much cheaper player than Rüdiger. AC only costs the club around £4M a year on the books (80k/wk wages) and Rüdiger total cost is around £11M a year (£100k/wk wages and £5.8M yearly amortisation). If they are considered equally good / bad players doesn't it make more sense to keep the one who's cheaper and younger? And this is coming from someone who doesn't really rate Christensen but Rüdiger is not any better either.

Nah, it was definitely the one a few weeks ago suggesting loaning out James and keeping Zappacosta as 2nd choice RB.

I think he'd play even less at Bayern than at Chelsea. They have Gnabry, Sane and Coman already ffs. Bayern need a 4th choice winger to play backup and are looking at the loan market to do that. They'd most certainly demand an option to buy so from Chelsea's perspective it's a lose-lose situation. Either he can't get a game and comes back having wasted another year on the bench or he somehow manages to become better than their already world-class options on the wings and make Chelsea/Lampard look like mugs when they buy him off.

Lampard has reportedly been so good at selling 'the project' to all the new signings but now he should sit down with CHO and do the same to him. With two games a week for pretty much the rest of the year and a busy 2021 ahead there should be more than enough games for Callum too but only if Lampard starts actually playing him.